As I start to write this article, I can see a sign in our office window advertising a Recovery Café. The poster quotes Johann Hari: “The opposite of addiction is not sobriety; it’s connection”, and the strapline is “We Are With You”. The sign reminds me of what Soot Semee listeners had to say about the importance of connection. Listeners I met when I visited the Soot Semee project in Northern Uganda, told me that Soot Semee helped them with trauma recovery by encouraging listeners to build connections with others.

I have to admit, I sometimes struggle to imagine how community-led radio could be effective in such a complex topic as trauma healing. I’m probably not alone in that.

So when this listener told me her story, I was encouraged and also a bit curious …

“Before Soot Semee, I was one person who could just be sitting on my veranda and I could just be crying. But now, I started listening to Soot Semee, and I heard messages that were able to help my heart.”

You couldn’t help but feel moved by her story. I also wondered how the radio programmes had had such a deep effect.

You can certainly imagine a radio programme being effective in other areas of health. For example a presenter can provide parents with instructions on how to treat children’s diarrhoea using home-made oral rehydration salts. But a radio presenter cannot similarly say, “today we tell you how to make a medicine that heals trauma.”

Trauma is described as:

“events or circumstances experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or life-threatening, which result in adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and well-being”.^[1]

It is deeply individual, and often sub-consciously experienced. One person may try to feel better through substance misuse, another may withdraw from social interaction. Still others may show no external effect until something or someone triggers the same feelings of fear or harm as in the original event. South Sudanese refugees have faced community violence and war which in itself leads to many different causes of trauma. Many South Sudanese women have been subjected to rape or other sexual violence by armed groups^[2]. Others may have witnessed the murder of friends. Forced separation from family and an unwanted move to a new country also causes trauma. The broad range of causes and effects can make trauma recovery very complex. Despite the complexity, the listeners shared some observations from their recovery journeys.

The woman above continued her story:

“And I could now be joined by other people. Initially I was that person who used to sit alone but now, with the coming together as a group I work together and this helps me so much. Initially I always prayed is there someone who will sometime listen to some of the issues that we go through.”

Another man spoke and said:

“All these years I have been staying here, just like a tree that is not having leaves. I am one person when I sit at my place, just alone, I feel there is nothing anymore, I am just alone. But when this radio* came, I felt like I saw Jesus with my eyes. I used to have a lot of thoughts and trauma, but now, all these thoughts have vanished.”

As I say, I was curious. What was it about the radio programmes that they had this effect? After the group finished sharing their stories I came back to this question. The first woman told me:

“Some of the programmes have advice about trauma, and others call the people to come together and share their issues as a group. When you are alone it is very hard, but when you hear from someone’s experience it helps a lot.”

I heard other stories from the listeners who tried to cope with trauma using alcohol, or violence. Each of them told a story of feeling like they were alone, but through the radio programmes, or being invited to join a listener group, they began to reconnect with people and feel valued.

People working in trauma-informed practice talk about the importance of safety, trust, collaboration and connection in supporting people suffering from trauma^[3]. Soot Semee’s Council of Reference, the listener groups, and our partners Community Development Centre, who helped Omugo community create the Soot Semee programmes, are working hard to create this safe environment for reconnecting.

I’m learning that trauma recovery is a journey, perhaps best travelled with others. It seems like the Soot Semee folks are also living out the strapline “We are with you”.

Getting to know a Soot Semee listener group, Omugo 4, Uganda. Feb 2023

* Soot Semee provides weekly programmes as MP3 files. Listener groups listen to the programmes on Speakerboxes, or digital audio players. The Omugo community members call Soot Semee a radio programme, and call the speakerboxes, radios.

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We facilitated a community consultation and media training workshop in Rhino Camp, Omugo extension zone.

This is the pre-launch phase of a community-centred media pilot called Soot Semee (Voice of Compassion in Juba Arabic). Over the next six months HCR (now Amplifying Voices) and our local partners are supporting new arrivals from South Sudan in Omugo zone to create audio podcasts in collaboration with service providers and host communities. Would you consider donating to support this pilot process?

Community members can listen to the podcasts using ‘Speakerboxes’ and memory cards (micro SD cards) distributed by our partner CDC (Community Development Centre).

Those who have mobile phones will also be able to transfer the programmes from phone to phone using Bluetooth. Others will hear segments of the programmes played alongside music on marketplace loudspeaker.

Media podcasts can be heard via Speakerbox or on Phones: Photo credit: John Green Photography, 2019

CDC is our newest partner. CDC’s Barnabas Samuel and Sebit Martin, invited HCR to join them in their mission to mitigate poverty, to empower vulnerable community members and to promote unity between refugee communities, service providers and host communities. In South Sudan, CDC operated a community radio station. Now registered as an NGO in Uganda, CDC engages with communities to promote sexual and reproductive health and tackle misinformation.

In partnership with the Sentinel Project, CDC uses a well researched mobile phone based platform, Hagiga Wahid and a host of ‘community ambassadors’ to track rumours and provide feedback to communities.

The Soot Semee project will complement the Hagiga Wahid tool.

Community journalism and audio production activities give new opportunities to hear about rumours and to disseminate findings about rumours that have been checked.

Photo Credit: Barnabas Samuel, 2019

In Omugo sub-county, northern Uganda, South Sudanese refugees and Ugandans live alongside each other. The Ugandan hosts have given land and other resources to South Sudanese refugees fleeing the conflict in South Sudan. This puts pressure on infrastructure, on health and educational resources, and on natural resources such as firewood. Remoteness from urban centres creates an environment where rumours can flourish and give rise to conflict purely through misinformation or misunderstanding. Neither the refugee communities nor the host community want that. They are determined to work together to bring mutually beneficial development in Omugo.

By engaging community members from all parts of the community in making audio podcasts, Soot Semee content will be highly relevant and build confidence even among the most vulnerable. Familiar voices will be an attraction for community producers and for listeners.

Listening to community voices in Omugo zone, Uganda. HCR, 2019

Refugees and host community members will be more aware of each other’s concerns.

Service providers provide access to critical health and educational information, but the community-centred approach positions the health and educational experts as trusted guests of the community rather than imposing untrusted solutions.

We want to do more than preventing conflict. I heard harrowing stories from people who have fled South Sudan: rape, inter-tribal killing, extra-judicial executions.

The escape to Uganda is fraught with risk. Refugees didn’t know if they would get past the next roadblock, and even if they survived they might do so as witness to atrocities on other travelers.

Many people are traumatised. We hope that the project will help people to start to heal from the psychological and emotional wounds caused by previous conflict. Some of the service providers, who have agreed to partner with Soot Semee, have skills in trauma healing. Community-centred media is a powerful tool for promoting trust and social dialogue. A trust-based partnership between community and service provider is an ideal environment for trauma healing.

HCR believes the time is right for this project, that it will saves lives and transform others. Barnabas Samuel from CDC told me his expectation: those most in need of information will hold these speakerboxes, and say:

“For me, this is life!”.

HCR is funding most of the pilot activities from general funds but we would love to hear from supporters who can help us complete this 6 month pilot successfully, to evaluate it effectively and to work with CDC and Omugo communities to develop sustainable, transformative community engagement for the longer term. Please Donate here or you can Contact Us if you prefer to receive a funding proposal.

Stories from Amplifying Voices projects using Speakerboxes

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